Adam had been paranoid since the death of his parents eight years ago. He didn’t trust adults anymore. In the orphanage he had found escape routes from every different room. He made plans to hide, run, fight, and even a couple to take them all with him if he died. None of this changed when he escaped with the other children, he just had to account for more people. As such, there were already a number of plans in place for situations similar to this. Thankfully, he had never once told any of those plans to Pygmy Bob, which meant the guardsmen should be unaware of their escape routes.
Unfortunately, he needed to get Peebee out with them and he had never once told any of those plans to the boy.
First things first, Adam thought. He knocked on the table, drawing the attention of everyone to him. The adults and PeeBee looked at his face, but the rest of the boys looked at his other hand and the three fingers extended onto the table in front of him. They’d not had the time or teachers to learn Thievescant, or the Adventurer’s Handsign, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t use a few simple signals. It was an important tool of survival on the street for beggars and pickpockets. Seeing his signal, the boys quickly pulled back, putting the table between them and the guards.
As the boys started moving, Adam spoke, keeping both guards in his view. The reaction from the city guardsman would tell him much. “Harold the Molester. You are unwelcome in our home. Leave before I call the real guards.” The man from the city was startled that he knew Harold, shocked at the title he gave him, and irritated by the impression that he wasn’t a real guard. Adam had briefly worried that Harold might kill the guardsman, but had noticed the shadows of more men laying across his doorway.
Harold, despite looking frustrated, seemed prepared. “Adam. You may have convinced children to believe your sad lies in a desperate bid to run away from your failures, but the people of the Temple orphanage just want to help. We are here to protect all of you, and see that you have everything you need until your Awakening. The Queen of Night cares for all orphans in her lands, even those who let their family die.” He smirked at the end, knowing that barb would hurt.
One of the things that separated children from Awakened was the ability to fight back. It wasn’t just the Skills and Abilities, but the mental changes as well. Children, as a whole, are mostly obedient and want to please. As long as people don’t tell them to stop playing, go to bed before they are tired, or make them eat broccoli they will generally do whatever is asked of them.
The Awakening of the Creator’s Gift might be instantaneous, but the changes that come afterward can last for years, normally ending around the time people experience their Class Evolution. Until that time, Apprentices grow faster, experience mood swings, grow body hair, show interest in the opposite sex, and become far more likely to refuse to do anything asked of them. Most theoreticians postulate that were it not for being paid, Apprentices wouldn’t do a single damn thing other than eat, sleep, and fornicate.
Unbeknownst to most people, the process of Awakening begins before the actual bestowal of the Gift. The Gifting itself, or the moment most consider to be the actual Awakening, can be sped up or delayed by moments of intense emotion, trauma, nutrition, mana density, and a host of other conditions. There was even a period of time before the actual Gifting where a child would be assessed for which Class they should be Gifted, to better match their personality, desires, and talents.
Had Harold not re-entered their lives, Adam would have likely had his Awakening of the Creator’s Gift sometime within the next year. His Awakening and assessment had just started that morning. Unfortunately for all involved, the heightened emotional state he found himself in was causing him to quickly rush up on his Gifting.
The only people to have spent any time researching these phenomena were the various families of nobility in their search for power. The nobles that researched the process had discovered that the correct path to acquiring the optimal Class for a person was the exact opposite of situations like the one Adam found himself in. Certainly, similar situations had often resulted in higher quality Classes, but the people who received them were often unsuited to having such Classes and were unable to level and grow them into the power they should have.
Since the death of his parents Adam hadn’t just been paranoid and untrusting of adults, he’d also been angry. Very, very angry. Much like Harold, most people who read the file on Adam assumed he had gotten his parents killed, and continued to accuse him of their death. The truth was something quite different, but no one seemed to want to believe a child. As such, Adam had gotten used to dealing with people like that by ignoring the things they said, requested, or ordered. He was quite good at figuring out exactly what they didn’t want him to do, and doing that instead. He was very accomplished at fighting back the only way he truly could against those with power greater than his own. In this case it also helped that Harold was an idiot.
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“Still sneaking in to read the sealed files of the headmistress I see. Or did you resort to bribery? That makes more sense, as I can’t see you sneaking anywhere with that silver spoon shoved up your ass. Oops, probably shouldn’t mention the ‘a’ word around a child molester like you, don’t want you getting excited. Speaking of things you shouldn’t get, take your hands off Bob, he’ll never be your toy no matter how much you try.” He didn’t really have a lot of options at the moment, so he was stalling. His only real hope was that PeeBee would finally see what a scumbag Harold was, and join them before the city guardsmen stepped in. Going back to the orphanage wouldn’t be all that bad as long as Harold was gone, but getting rid of him would require Pygmy Bob’s testimony as well as the city guardsmen.
Harold couldn’t help himself. Adam had always pissed him off, having been wary of him from the start. He knew he’d gotten the other boys to pull little Bobby away from him, or to bring other guards to interfere. Now he had him in a confrontation he couldn’t escape, and the guardsmen backing him up weren’t those pussy little babysitters he had to work with every day. “Listen here you little shit! I’m going to be adopting Little Bobby here, so he’ll be mine forever and there’s nothing you can do. As for the rest of these boys,” he said boys like rich people said scum, “they are going back to the orphanage, but not you. Oh no, I’ve got something special for you. You’re going to prison for kidnapping! Guards! Seize him!” Harold’s gleeful shout didn’t get quite the reaction he was hoping for.
PeeBee, sensing something very off with the man who had always been kind and calm to him, pulled away. He wasn’t quite on the right side of the table yet, but at least he was no longer in the way. Seeing him move Adam gestured to the rest of the boys, and they all stepped closer to the table. At Harold’s shout, they heaved the table onto its side, partially blocking Harold and the guards from advancing into the room. It also revealed the plank that Adam kicked out of the way, opening an entrance to the sewers.
The third party in this little drama hadn’t really planned ahead like Adam and Harold had, but the city guardsmen had a simple plan they always fell back on in difficult times like these. Detain everyone, and let the Captain and the Magistrate sort it out. They even had most of the information they needed for both sides of the dispute already. As soon as Harold had approached them to ask for assistance in retrieving some runaways from the temple orphanage they had activated their recording devices, and had gotten the entire episode recorded. They would still need some evidence from the orphanage, as well as statements from everyone, but as long as they were all locked up in the city jail no one could cause any harm.
So when Harold shouted, they enacted plan Detain Everyone. They had a few obstacles to overcome first though. For starters, they couldn’t actually harm the children. Second, the shack must have originally been made by Halflings or Dwarves, as it had very low ceilings. Third, Harold was farther inside the one room building than they were, and close to two children he appeared to be intending to harm. And finally, someone had just flipped a table that was almost as wide as the room was tall onto its side in front of them.
“Go!” Adam hollered. As the rest of the boys started dropping down the sewer entrance, which had already been built as a sort of emergency exit slide even before they found it, a huge crashing noise resounded, shaking the building. Adam picked up the plank that had covered the exit and braced the table with it, getting it wedged just in time, as crackling thuds sounded out from the table as spells impacted it with intent to move it without endangering the children. He looked up just in time to see PeeBee hit by a spell, and drop to the ground bonelessly.
Not knowing exactly what the blue flash of the spell impact signified, Adam assumed the worst. In this case death was not the worst, capture was. He charged forth, sliding down next to PeeBee, hoping to drop below any spells still flying in his direction. Tucking the tiny child against his chest he tried to dash back to the sewer entrance, but his foot slid out from under him as he was rising. With one hand still on the ground, he shoved off, trying to turn so he wouldn’t land on PeeBee. As he rolled he saw the last of the boys, Dwarven Bob, crouched above the sewer entrance, hands outstretched, whisper yelling, “Toss him!” Landing roughly on his shoulder, his head snapped back and thudded into the ground, shooting pain and stars through his skull and stunning him briefly.
The guards had reacted quickly to the circumstances. The Sergeant at the door had flicked his fingers, signing orders to his squad as the situation had evolved. With the table tipping over, he knew there had to be some sort of escape hatch beneath it, and sent half of his men off to scour the nearby sewers with help from any other guardsmen they could contact en route. Stepping back for the door he snapped his fingers and the rest of his squad yanked the wall off the building by brute force. Seeing Harold turning on the nearest child the Sergeant flicked a paralysis spell at him, but it was deflected into the child. The rest of the squad tried to blast the table either upright or back to the other wall with the weakest spells they could use. Breaking it would send splinters flying everywhere, harming the children and ending their careers.
Harold had reacted on instinct to the spell attack and parried it past himself as he drew his sword. He didn’t even notice it contact Little Bobby. Seeing the guardsman who attacked him still coming, he knew he had to fight if he wanted to control the narrative of this disaster. He had connections that could apply pressure to the right places to resolve this, but only if he was conscious. He couldn’t kill the guardsmen, but disabling them should be fine as long as they weren’t too injured. And once they were down, he could take care of Adam once and for all.